This dissertation provides an ethnohistorical examination of the history, discourses, and practices of the Rifai Sufi order in Turkey. The Rifai order is an upper-middle class Sufi order that is currently under the leadership of an unveiled female shaykha, Cemalnur Sargut (b. 1952). The Rifais imagine Islam as a dynamic “tradition” that can adjust to new spatial and temporal arrangements. They concentrate on the inner meanings of Islam, as expressed in ethical self-formation through the cultivation of love and mindfulness of God. Rifais reconfigure mainstream Muslim gender discourses by discarding the practices of veiling and gender segregation, and extending women’s public participation to the level of community and spiritual leadership. The Rifai sheikhs reformulated the tradition by situating it within ongoing projects of sociocultural, political, and economic change over the past century in Turkish society. During Turkey’s transition from an empire into a nation-state in the 1920s, Kenan Rifai emphasized the compatibility of Sufi tradition with the processes of modernization, secularization, and Republican reform. During the Cold War Era, Samiha Ayverdi entwined the precepts of the Rifaiyye with the politics of anti-communist conservatism, with her nationalist commitment to the preservation of Turkey’s Islamic heritage in literature, music, fine arts, and architecture. Since the early 2000s, Cemalnur Sargut has reinterpreted the Rifai way of life in a manner that ethically engages the lifestyles, sensibilities, and tastes of Turkey’s diverse middle-class. Sargut has also contributed to the global revitalization of Sufism by building global Sufi networks through a series of academic initiatives, including establishing endowed professorial chairs and Sufi research institutes around the world. This study contextualizes the revival of alternative piety movements like Rifaiyye within the broader changes taking place in Turkey. The changes highlighted include the expansion of a culturally hybrid middle class, growing disillusionment with social and economic neoliberalism, increased public interest in Islamic religiosity, and the global revitalization of Sufism. The study also challenges the portrayal of Islam as a homogeneous, immutable, and ahistorical religion grounded in totalizing and essentialist readings of the sacred texts, highlighting the varieties of Islamic traditions and pious subjectivities in contemporary Turkish society. / 2027-11-30T00:00:00Z

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF), prior to this study, knew little about stakeholder desires for wild turkeys, and had no modern means to assess turkey habitat. My objectives were to (1) identify stakeholders in management of wild turkeys in Virginia, assess their attitudes and opinions regarding turkey management, and incorporate that knowledge in developing a management plan for wild turkeys in Virginia; during this process, assess how involvement in a management planning process affects stakeholders and agency personnel, and (2) develop a preliminary habitat assessment for wild turkeys in Virginia. I employed collaborative planning techniques to develop the management plan. I utilized surveys to assess changes in knowledge, attitudes, and opinions by the Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) and VDGIF staff. I performed a review of wild turkey habitat requirements and habitat assessments, and utilized surveys and the Delphi method to select variables and suitability values for the habitat assessment. The SAC improved their knowledge of wild turkeys, and the SAC and Wild Turkey Technical Committee, and became more accepting of public involvement in decision-making. Wildlife Bureau staff placed more importance on minority stakeholders' values, had more positive views of the agency and wild turkey management, and desired professional opinion in decision-making. I developed a 2-step comprehensive habitat assessment for wild turkeys. The first step examines habitat at the landscape-level (5,167 acres); the second step applies a rapid habitat appraisal tool that uses aerial imagery and data collected from on-site inspection to assess habitats of <1,000 acres. / Master of Science

This study focuses on the Welfare Party elite's conceptualisation of modernity during the party's last 4-5 years before its closure in 1998. Since the party was the most important Islamist organisation in Turkey. it was at an important point of interaction between Islamism and modernity. The study tries to determine the significance of the WP discourse on key modernisation issues by answering such questions as how the WP elite conceptualised modernity; how this conceptualisation was formulated, constructed and what was modernity's relationship with the West in their view. It argues that, the WP elite had a distinct (Islamist) understanding of modernity which, despite its differences in its approach to some basic issues (e. g. secularism) overall remained within modernity by sharing most of its major characteristics. The WP elite, similar to many other Islamist movements, advocated a more Islamic (less secular and less Westernising) route to modernity; and they could not be considered as anti-modernists. The study contributes towards a better understanding of the critical role that a version of Islamism plays in Turkey's politics and process of modernisation and provides insights about the impact of Western modernity on the sizeable Islamist section. The study employs important concepts such as secularisation, nationalism, the modern state, economic development (science, technology, industrialisation), capitalism and democracy as important components of modernity. (It also provides a general analysis of Islamism in the Middle East vis-ä-vis modernity through these concepts). An analysis of the views of the WP elite with regard to these concepts and processes serves to better understanding the Islamist stance towards the particular path of modernisation in Turkey, modernity in general, and also the West. / Osmangazi University, Turkey / Additional content files accompanying this thesis are not available on Bradford Scholars, but are available from the British Library Ethos Service: https://ethos.bl.uk

No / FP7

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The resurgence of Sufism in the contemporary world has necessitated reexamining the nature and role of Sufism in contemporary contexts. A series of the reexaminations reveal that contemporary Sufism cannot be fully explained by traditional theories; instead it must be understood in accordance with changing contexts. On this basis, this dissertation directs itself to an investigation of the contemporary manifestations of Sufism. It specifically examines Sufism in the life, thought and teachings of Fethullah Gülen (b. 1941), as its case study. Gülen is known to be one of the most influential contemporary Muslim leaders, and has led a fast-growing movement expanded to global proportions. Much of the research that has consequently followed the inception of the growth of the movement presents Gülen as one of the major figures in defining the contemporary global Islamic experience, and suggests that the studies of Gülen contribute to a better understanding of contemporary issues in Islamic studies including the resurgence and transformation of Sufism. Remarkably, almost all of the studies on Gülen and the Gülen movement underline the importance of further research on Gülen's approach to Sufism. Terms like 'quasi-Sufism' and 'neo-Sufism' are assigned to his thought, while such phrases as 'a Sufi order,' 'a Sufi-oriented movement' and 'a Nurcu branch in the Naqshbandiyya' are circulated to characterize his movement. However, this terminology has not been adequately examined by any extensive research to warrant its justification. This dissertation examines Gülen's view on Sufism in order to understand how Sufism manifests itself in contemporary contexts, addressing what Sufism means in the contemporary world. Viewing Sufism as a dynamic discipline interacting with given contextual conditions, I primarily argue that there are distinctive characteristics of Sufism that appeal to the contemporary world enough to allow Sufism to resurface; it is necessary to identify those characteristics to understand the nature and role of Sufism in contemporary Islam. Gülen's Sufism, as an outcome of its interaction with a contemporary context, provides a better understanding of the characteristics in a way that it represents one of the contemporary manifestations of Sufism. / Religion

This novel is a family saga that follows Gülsün and her two daughters Sevda and Eda-Eva, who are half-sisters. Gülsün agrees to an arranged marriage with Haydar, a factory worker in Germany, and immigrates from her small village in Turkey to Germany. From this marriage Sevda is born. When she is old enough for kindergarten, Gülsün attends a German language course. She falls in love with the German instructor, Günther, and they begin an affair. Gülsün finds out that she is pregnant and abandons Sevda to live with Günther, who moves them to the outskirts of the city where Haydar cannot find her. Haydar, feeling emasculated and unable to take care of five-year-old Sevda, sends her to his family in Turkey for a couple of years. In a moment of intoxication, Gülsün sets out to reclaim Sevda and to unite her with her half-sister Eda-Eva, who knows nothing about Sevda’s existence. Gülsün, having chosen to follow the riverbank to reach the old apartment where she once lived, falls into the river and drowns. To connect Eda-Eva to her mother’s roots, Günther moves them to the city close to the Turkish community, where she makes friends with Sinem and realizes that she is queer. Years later on a train, Sevda and Eda-Eva meet and become friends, unaware of their connection. As their friendship deepens, the two fall in love. Both girls are desperate to leave their homes (Günther has built a new family for himself, in which Eda-Eva feels like a third wheel. Haydar has remarried a woman from his village back home, who takes out her sadness of infertility on Sevda). Eda-Eva suggests they move to the house in the outskirts, where she used to live with her mother. They arrive at the house that holds Gülsün’s memories in the basement. Lying in bed, the two create a fantasy of a future life together, although the truth becomes more and more undeniable to Sevda.